Thomko Petro Chemical Blog

Goodyear Engineered Products has introduced the first alternative fuel dispensing hose verified by Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (UL).

A complete line of hose, including Goodyear Flexsteel, Ambassador, BC Gasoline and BC Marina, are available to meet the nation's growing demand for clean burning biodiesel and E85 environmentally-friendly fuels.

Rubber hose products could degrade when exposed to new fuel blends, but Goodyear's are chemically compatible with biodiesel fuels and retain their physical properties after coming in contact with the fuels.

Derived from natural vegetable oils, such as soybean, biodiesel fuel is blended with petroleum to produce a cleaner burning fuel that is sulfur-free. E85 is produced from corn husk that is converted to an alcohol mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

The added rating to the Goodyear hose products now used to pump petroleum-based fuel enables Goodyear Authorized Distributors to supply service stations without stocking additional products.

According to the National Biodiesel Board, or NBB, there are more than 1,850 U.S. distributors and retailers of biodiesel fuel with sales increasing in the country from 500,000 gallons to 36 million gallons from 1999 to 2004.